The Kitsune Trainer
by Chris ShadowMoon
Summary: A slightly different childhood ends up with Ranma knowing a little magic. Unfortunately, this magic interacts with Jusenkyo, sending him, now HER in mind and body, to the PokemonVerse. Yuri. Pairing ?. Being Rewritten. Ranma/Pokemon/Slayers. On Hiatus
1. Chapter 1

The Kitsune Trainer

Authors Notes- I got this idea in church. I'll just do what Bunji the Wolf does, write what I feel like when I feel like it.

Also, the starter WILL be Pikachu, but I'm adding a twist I'VE never seen in any Pokémon story before, although the basic concept I've seen in several stories, just not on a Pokémon.

Lets see if anyone can guess it! Just for fun!

Also, my entire party is planned out, but I'm having Eevee evolve into a Leafeon via Leaf Stone. I know that isn't how it works. I don't care.

If I accidentally call Ranma "Naruto" tell me so I can change it. I'm reading a bunch of those at the moment, and it's very possible that I'll do that.

Chapter One

The Kitsune-Ken

Genma Saotome sighed as he looked over the rack of martial arts training manuals, trying to find a good one to uh… borrow, yea, borrow, that had an ultimate style in it. He'd looked several months, but a tip had sent him here, claiming that the manuals all had ultimate techniques. He randomly reached out and grabbed a book.

It was small and yellow, and had a small picture of a wild-looking cat on it. The title read _Neko-Ken._

_Neko-Ken_

_The Neko-Ken is said to be the second best among martial arts styles, second only to the Kitsune-Ken. It is a master style designed to imprint the battle reflexes and ferocity of a cat into the user. Please take note that the participant has a high chance of dying._

_To train in the Neko-Ken, the participant must be between the ages of six and ten, and not have any attachment to felines of any type. First, you must dig a large pit large enough to comfortably fit the young child and about thirty cats. Then take the cats and starve them for a time between one and two weeks. Then, wrap the child in fish products and throw into the pit. Cover the pit until all the food is gone. Repeat as needed until the child learns the technique._

Genma slid the booklet into his pocket as he grumbled. "Second best? Bah. The best must be here somewhere." Lo and behold, it was three shelves down under a 'Rock Fist Martial Arts' booklet, which he skipped over.

_The Kitsune-Ken_

_The Kitsune-Ken is renown as the best fighting style in the world. It is very similar to the Neko-Ken in appearance, technique, and abilities. It is a master style designed to imprint the speed and craftiness of a fox into the user. Please take note that the participant has a high chance of dying._

_To train in the Kitsune-Ken, the participant must be between the ages of six and ten, and not have any attachment to foxes of any type. First, you must dig a large pit large enough to comfortably fit the young child and about thirty foxes. Then take the foxes and starve them for a time between one and two weeks. Then, wrap the child in meat products and throw into the pit. Cover the pit until all the food is gone. Repeat as needed until the child learns the technique._

Genma pocketed the booklet and started to creep out towards the exit as he got an idea that would, unknowingly, alter the destiny of a reality full of cute, furry little animals with elemental affinities.

'_If the Neko-Ken is the second best, and the Kitsune-Ken is the best, then if I combine the two, I'll have the best style in existence! I must find some cats and foxes. I only hope the kid appreciates what I'm about to do for him.'_

He slipped out the door, stolen materials safely in hand.

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A seven year old Ranma screamed and wished to die as his father threw him back into the pit for the god-knows-how-many-ith time in as many days. He claimed he was learning a new technique. Ranma had to disagree.

Ranma had always been a smart kid. Well, at least as smart as one could get given the circumstances. He had a huge thirst for any new knowledge, training or otherwise. He never showed his father, though. He'd tried once, and his father had beat him black and… blacker, actually, trying to 'beat that sissy concept out of him'. It hadn't worked, but he allowed his father to believe it had.

Sadly, there wasn't too much he could learn, but that never stopped him from looking. Right now, though, he was sure that this was an insanity technique or a torture method. He wasn't sure which. Sadly, he could feel that, each time his father threw him into the pit, his respect and support for the man dwindled to the point that it was all but gone at the moment. He could also feel that, as each set of jaws and each set of claws tore into his flesh, his sanity was slipping away. He knew it wasn't long until he finally lost all of it, and he just hoped that he'd be able to return to his current state.

Unseen to him, as the last grip on his sanity was lost, and the fear of both cats and foxes imprinted itself on his psyche for the next several years, a pair of kits, no older than one year, sat in the corner slowly dying. These two young foxes were sisters, and were, despite them believed to be stupid animals, some of the smartest of their breeds. They realized what was happening every time they attacked the poor young boy, how it wasn't worth it. So, instead of attacking, like the other foxes and the cats, which were injuring each other in a mad attempt to get the food, they decided to slowly starve, trying to do their best for the boy.

At the same time they died, they left their bodies and entered Ranma's, instead of moving on to where ever fox souls go. They entered his psyche and attempted to help him keep his sanity. This would ALSO help create a legend in another dimension, but neither of them knew this.

Sadly, even though the bond helped to give Ranma a way to return to his sanity and decreased his fear of foxes, (the cat fear they could do nothing about) Ranma still slipped into darkness as his mind split into several fragments, one human male, one human female, one cat, and one fox, amongst others. At the moment, the feline and the cat shared dominance, while the human female had itself locked away, not to be awoken until a faithful day in a cursed training ground in China.

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Genma panted as he chased after his newly cat-and-fox-ified child, all the while swearing about his 'good-for-nothing, dishonorable, ungrateful son'. He really had no place to talk, even though once Ranma had gotten out of the pit, he'd attacked him, causing him to take several bleeding gashes.

Finding his son wasn't hard. All he had to do was follow the blessedly empty streets lined with shredded fences, trees, and house walls until he found him. And find him he did.

His son was currently curled up in the lap of a little old lady on her porch at the end of the street. She wasn't anything special to look at, just your classic sixty-year old lady with the white hair and wrinkled eyes. Genma was hiding in the bushes on the other side of the street when she started talking.

"I know you are there. I take it this boy is yours. Well, go away. I recognize the signs here. If I don't help this child, he'll go permanently insane and possibly die within the next few years. Come back in five days."

She turned to look at him, revealing eyes that were blue, but Genma could have sworn they flashed red for a moment. Sweating bullets, he turned and ran, all the while thinking about how genius he was to 'trick' the old lady into feeding the ungrateful boy for the next few days.

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The next five days were completely uneventful for Genma, besides him being chased by several mobs, stealing from at least ten stores, and catching wind of, in his completely worthless opinion, the perfect training ground. For Ranma… it was a little more eventful.

On the fifth day he woke up to see the face of a kind old lady looking at him. He'd been unconscious the entire time. She took him into the house and fed him, before asking what had happened. He told her everything since his father started this trip, with her taking on a look of thought as he went on.

"Tell me, Ranma, do you respect your father and his views?" the old lady asked.

Now it was Ranma's turn to adopt a look of thoughtfulness. At first, he was going to say 'yes' but then stopped. Did he really? Sure, his father was the only direct influence he had, but still. If he was doing good, why would all those people try to hurt them? And he was sure that the thing with the cats was illegal. He finally came to his conclusion.

"I did, at one time. Now, I don't. I'm seriously starting to question his sanity." The old lady nodded.

"Ranma, I'm old. I doubt I have much time left. Now, I must know. Do you wish to learn what I can teach you?"

Ranma nodded. Not because his father told him 'Never turn down a chance to learn new things', but because even being insane couldn't squash his need to learn things. She grinned, like a giant weight was taken off her shoulders. In a way, it was. She'd found an heir, an apprentice. She walked over to a book-shelf and pulled out one of the oldest books Ranma had ever seen.

It was a dark green in color, and the pages were so old they were yellow and crumbling. The cover was amazing. There were words that had been written in white at one time, but age had worn away the color, until nothing was left. Embedded in the center of the thick cover was a gem that seemed to shift colors with the reflection of the light, not staying any one color for more than a few seconds.

She handed him the book, and he looked at it in awe. Delicately opening the book, as if it would crumble to dust with the slightest wrong move, he tried to get a good look at one of the pages. On the first page was a small circle, about the size of a U. S. quarter. He looked back at the old lady.

"The name of that book was lost several years ago. It's a special book. Like training manuals, it will teach you about types of fighting. However, the most common type in that book is Magic. To get started, simply press your finger on the circle." She smiled at him again. Shrugging, he reached down, and pressed his index finger onto the circle.

Suddenly, he felt a slight pain on his finger-tip, and pulled off the page to see that it had cut him. He looked back down to see the blood on the page being absorbed. Suddenly, the book started to glow.

When the glowing died, the book had changed very little on the outside. The words had completely vanished, and the pages looked like they were brand new. The dark, faded green was now a crimson red. Inside it had changed more.

As mentioned, all the pages looked brand new. The first page, right below the circle, read, '_Property of Ranma Saotome.'_ Ranma grinned and flipped the book open to the first page, which was a table of contents.

Table of Contents.

Introduction

Getting Started

The Source of Magic

Black Magic  
… Curses and Summons  
… Offensive Spells

Shamanistic Magic  
… Air Spells  
… Earth Spells  
… Fire Spells  
… Spirit Spells  
… Water Spells

White Magic

Martial Arts Styles  
...Hidden Light: Locked. To Unlock, You Must Know the Key to Hidden Light  
...Silent Assassin  
...Dragons Fang

'_Table of Contents'_ was written in Green ink, '_Introduction' _was written in blue ink, and the rest were written in black ink. Not really understanding it too much, Ranma kept going on.

Ranma started to flip to the first few pages, before the lady said something. "Not here, boy. Wait until you leave. Your father will be here soon. Now, remember, tell nobody about this book. Only you can see it. Now, learn all you can, and make me proud." Suddenly, Ranma heard his father's voice.

"Alright, you old hag! It's been five days. Give me back my son." Ranma started to run towards the door, before realizing he never thanked the woman, or even learned her name. but when he turned back, what he saw shocked him.

The room, which had been well furnished, books on the shelves, tables, a few chairs, and curtains, was all bare. There wasn't a single scrap of material anywhere, and the bookshelves were all empty. The old lady was no-where to be found.

Slightly creeped out, Ranma just grabbed his pack by the door and slid the book in before running outside to meet with his good-for-nothing father.

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The next nine years passed slowly for Ranma. Between his father's torturous training and trying to sleep, Ranma didn't get too much time to actually look at the book. Well, that was until he'd found that his father couldn't stay awake for very long if he slipped something in his drinks. He wasn't sure what it was, just that it had appeared in his pack one day. After that, he'd had plenty of time to practice, as his father would sleep right through a bolt of lightning.

He should know. He tried when he was fourteen.

He'd learned some cool stuff from the books, but it was slow going, mainly because before he could even start, he'd need to separate his life energy into both Ki, which is what most martial artists used in their fighting, and Mana, the basis of all magic. That had taken three years. 

It was all explained in the chapters of the book. He found that most of the book in the table of contents had black ink. It had explained in the introduction that the color of the ink signified things. If the ink was written in green ink, the contents had been learned. If it was in blue, the contents were there, but unable to be learned. If it was in black, the pages were blank.

He found he could unlock more content by reading and mastering what he didn't have. He'd had to read all of the information in the three sections, Introduction, Getting Started, and The Source of Magic, before any of the spells even became available to him. Somehow, he wasn't quite sure, the book KNEW if he understood what he read or not. He'd had to read 'The Source of Magic' three times to understand it before the book would let him move on.

After that, things went a lot easier. He couldn't explain it exactly, but it seemed like a lot of the spells he already knew. But that was silly, wasn't it? After all, he'd never seen any of these spells before. So there was no way that he'd know them, right?

At first, he was tempted to just learn the flashier spells, the ones that made a huge bang and looked really cool at the same time, but squelched that line of thought. After all, flashy moves were nice, but a master had to know EVERYTHING, not just the flashy moves, although he had to admit, he found Dragon Slave to be his favorite.

And, even though he seemed to be much better at this than the book said he was, on par with the original authors, even… somebody named Lina Inverse ("Where have I heard that name?" He thought the first time he saw it) in terms of magical strength, he originally had some problems learning the white magic spells, but he did manage to learn most of them. He also started carrying around a small dagger to use in his 'Shadow Snap' spell, hidden in a small holder on his left arm. He used some spells, but none of them were around his father, and none were detectable unless you knew what to look for. He was very careful to never let his father know about the book.

In time, his father had to drag him off to one last place before he was supposed to go visit some friends of his in Japan. Unknown to both of them, Ranma would never make it.

CHAPTER END


	2. Chapter 2

The Kitsune Trainer

CH 2 is finally here. I'm working on the other stuff, but I've hit a wall and can't seem to get motivated to write what happens next in either story, really. I'll try, though, after a good night sleep and a good breakfast tomorrow.

I do not own Ranma. I do not own Pokémon. I do not own the Immortals Series by Tamora Pierce. I do not own Slayers, but the conglomerate of all this stuff was my original idea. Disclaimers are totally pointless, and soft pretzels are yummy! (So are food idioms)

Chapter Two

Ranma grimaced as he looked over the cursed springs of Jusenkyo. His magic sense was flaring violently, a sign that the place was absolutely no good. He'd learned a long time ago to never ignore that danger sense, as it was much more finely tuned when it came to magic, but he had no real choice in the matter. He couldn't show his father his true strength, and his father would never leave without training first, so he just decided to be extra, EXTRA careful.

"Let's go, boy." His father grunted, tossing his pack to the side. Ranma tossed his next to a wooden fence by the guides hut. Suddenly, the guide came running up to them, saying something in broken Japanese. Ranma tried to pay attention, but his father grabbed him by his collar and threw him at the springs. He managed to regain his balance and stood atop one of the bamboo poles. His father jumped onto another pole in front of him.

"Are you sure this is a good idea, pops? This place gives me the creeps." Said Ranma. His father scoffed and sent a flying kick at Ranma. Ranma jumped off to one side as his father landed on the same pole he was on just moments before. "Ok, then. I won't hold back!" Ranma said, and they both leapt towards each other at the same time.

His father threw a right hook, but Ranma grabbed the fist and gave it a twist, spinning his father into position for him to bring his left foot up and slam it into his gut, sending him flying into one of the spring. Ranma landed on a nearby pole, crossed his arms, and smirked. "Oy! Old man, we calling it quits already?" Ranma taunted.

Suddenly, a plume of water shot out, but instead of his father, there was a panda, wearing his father's Gi and glasses. It assumed a martial arts stance on top of the pole. "Pops?" Ranma asked. The panda just 'growlph?''ed before sending a flying kick at the stunned Ranma.

Ranma knew that there was something strange about the springs, but this was about his last guess about what it would have been. He heard the guide yelling something along the lines of "Oh no! Honorable Customer has fallen into the Spring of Drowned Panda. Tragic story of panda who drown there five thousand years ago."

Ranma could have groaned, if he wasn't shocked into paralysis, that is. The panda, we'll call him Panda-chan, gave him a flying kick to his chest, sending him on a direct course towards a nearby pool. Using an unnoticeable amount of levitation, he managed to get just close enough to a nearby pole for him to reach out and flagpole it, or grab it with both hands and swing around, launching him into the air so he could land on another pole. He did _not_ want to land in a pool if he could help it!

He landed on another pole and tried calling out to his father again.

"Pops! STOP!" Panda-chan didn't listen, instead sending a punch towards his head. He flipped over Panda-chan's head and landed on another pole. Panda-chan did a sling-shot maneuver off the pole and sent a flying kick to Ranma's stomach. He jumped up over him, but didn't see his newly panda-fied father grab his ankle and give him a good, hard yank towards the fence he'd put his stuff down by.

He never had a chance to try and use any of his magic or martial arts abilities, as the throw had made him clip a bamboo shoot with his head, stunning him. He crashed through the fence, trying to grab anything he could. Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending on your point of view, the only thing nearby was his pack. He crashed into the water, still holding his pack, with a loud splash.

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Right after he'd made the throw, Panda-chan had caught sight of his arm and stopped, looking more confused than someone who'd fallen through an interdimensional portal. He saw the guide running over towards the whole in the fence where he'd thrown his son.

"Oh, No! Honorable Customer has thrown other honorable customer into forbidden section of springs! All springs there are really, really bad! Either permanent, mind-changing, or demon springs! Humble Guide must go track down Honorable Customer. Humble Guide really hopes Honored Customer didn't fall in third one!" The guide said in a near panic as he started running towards the fenced-off springs.

'_Oh, shit. Nodoka is going to kill me' _was the only thought in the panda's head.

As they ran through the giant hole in the fence, they found the pool Ranma had fallen in, bubbles breaking the surface every few seconds. The guide looked apprehensive. "I've found Honored Sir! He is in…" He pulled out a map, and started running his finger over its surface, trying to find the name of the spring. Suddenly, he stopped and tapped the map a few times with his finger.

"Here it is. Honored Sir has fallen in…" Suddenly, he was cut off as a huge pillar of light erupted out of the spring, causing both Genma-Panda and the Guide to have to cover their eyes and flinch backwards. The light pillar of light was as round across as the length of the pool, and shot about fifty feet up into the sky before tapering off. The light itself seemed to dance, like a really pretty laser light show was happening inside.

Then suddenly, the light disappeared just as fast as it arrived, but where it was, a pool it was no more. Now, all that was left was a five foot across whole in the ground, ten feet deep. All the water, and Ranma, was nowhere to be found.

The guide sighed. "Honored Sir has fallen in what used to be Permanent Spring of Drowned Girl."

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A few minutes earlier

Ranma hit the water with a splash, clutching his bag in his right fist. He was vaguely aware of someone screaming. Then, he realized, it was him. He blacked out just moments he was under, his magic swirling blue around him.

When he opened his eyes, he was… well, there are a lot of different words that he could use here. Scared not really being one of them. Confused, yes. Shocked, hell yes. Lost? Certainly. Scared? Not really.

Ok, he'd admit. Black and white landscape was creepy. So was the blood-red sky. The pools of Jusenkyo at the bottom of the mountain he was on was also a little unsettling. Not to mention that he was partly transparent. Again, weird. Was he scared? Not really.

He put his hand on his head, scratching it in confusion. "Well… this can't be right." He said, looking around for some form of color other than the sky.

"You're right about that." Said a feminine voice from behind him. Years of training kicking in, he twisted around to see… a girl! Wow, that was anti-climactic.

By his standards, she was fairly cute, though. She was fairly short, about five two, with crimson, blood red hair. He wasn't sure exactly what it was about the color of blood and black, but they were his favorites. She had brown-red eyes and she was wearing a pitch black outfit with the kanji for 'female' on the upper right hand corner of her shirt, right over her… almost non-existent chest. Her pants were snug-fitting black jeans, and her shoes were also black, with black laces with more kanji running over them. '_All in all,' _he thought, '_not a bad look for a cute girl.'_

The glared at him. "I hate this outfit, you know. I'd rather wear my shoulder guards and cape with my yellow and red outfit." She said, causing Ranma's eyes to widen. Did she just-- "Yes, I just read your mind." She said, shrugging slightly. Suddenly, a different, but still female voice spoke up. "You know, I hate it when she does that." He turned around to see… drum roll… a can of tuna! No, I'm kidding, it was a woman.

She had long, smoky-brown hair down to her mid back that curled slightly at the end and grey-blue eyes. Some of it draped around her front, down over her chest, which was probably a A-cup, maybe a B. She was about five nine or so, and wore brown tunic over a white shirt and a pair of brown, leather pants. She also had on riding boots and a silver medallion in the shape of a badger claw around her neck.

"Reading your mind, I mean. It isn't fare that she can and I can't!" She pouted, something that made her really cute in Ranma's opinion. "Then again," she shrugged, "She is you." Ranma shot her a blank look. "What?"

Both sighed simultaneously, something that, quite frankly, weirded Ranma out. The shorter girl spoke. "I. Am. You." She said, as if talking to a small child. Then she shrugged. "Well, you're my reincarnation, but it's the same thing." Ranma gave her a 'wtf' look. "Ok… but I'm not a girl, last I checked." She just glared at him again.

"Well, that's where things get interesting. I suppose I should start with were we are. Well, we're in your mind… or rather, our mind. As for where I came from, blame that stupid Neko-Kitsune-Ken our father trained us in. You going insane split your personalities, so I was created from your femininity. The only problem was that as soon as I was made, I was sealed back in the deepest recesses of our mind. Thankfully, that was where the memories of our last life was."

Ranma, kind of understanding what was going on, nodded. "Ok, that makes sense. I guess. Here's another good question. Why am I transparent?" He asked, sticking his hand through his chest. The brown-haired woman answered.

"Well, we have a theory about that as well. When your personality split, the male part of you took over, degrading itself as it had no femininity to balance out against… at least, in theory." Ranma looked at her confused. "Did you no follow that?" She asked. The read-head snorted slightly. "Probably not. He looks thicker than Gourry."

Ranma glanced at her, confused, but he had to admit that Gourry did sound familiar.

Ranma shook his head. "No, I got it. I'm just wondering, where did you come from?! If she's me, then who are you?!" He asked. The woman scratched the back of her head sheepishly. "well… what's the last thing you remember?" She asked gently.

Ranma scrunched his face up in thought. "Uh, I was fighting with Pops, and then I got thrown through a fence… and into a spring. Crap. What spring did I land in?" He asked, looking dejected.

Both girls smirked at him, slightly. "Take a wild guess."

Now, Ranma wasn't stupid. He just didn't want to face the truth. Unfortunately for him, he couldn't really deny it any longer.

"Uh… random guess? Yours." He said, dejectedly. If he was right then…

She nodded. "Crap." He said, then sighed loudly.

"When I was still alive, my name was Veralidaine Sarrasri, and I was known as Daine the Wildmage. I was a leading mage and spy for the king of Tortall. During one of my last adventures, I was hit by a spell. The next thing I know, I'm flying through the air towards the pools of Jusenkyou. I drown in one of them, and have been here ever sense." Ranma shot her a pitying glance, before focusing on his own problems.

"Will I be able to change back." They both shook their heads 'no'. He groaned. "The dumbest stuff just has to happen to me, doesn't it?" He asked, massaging his semi-transparent temples with two fingers. The female him nodded.

"Of course we do. We _are _the avatars of The Lord of Nightmares, after all." She shrugged. Ranma shot her another 'wtf' look. "Lord of who what now?" He asked. Lina sighed. "Yep, he's definitely as dumb as Gourry, alright." She muttered. "The Lord of Nightmares, or L-sama, is what you called 'Kami-sama'." At Ranma's open-mouth expression, she closed her eyes and nodded sagely, looking much more effective than Genma ever did.

"Yep, that was my reaction, too. That did explain why I could cast both Giga Slave and Laguna Blade without destroying the world." She crossed her arms and put a finger to her chin, looking very cute. She shrugged. "Well, in any rate, that's why all the strange stuff happens, we're the original avatars of Chaos herself."

Suddenly, the black and white landscape started to slowly fade, the lines started morphing and warping, changing from a cursed valley into… something different, completely making Ranma forget about his next question.

"Ok, what's going on?" He asked, looking slightly panicked. Daine started talking in a fast pace.

"We don't have much time left. The magic in the water is interacting with the magic in your body and the magic in mine. Normally, this wouldn't have too much affect, as you fell in a permanent spring. However, the magic of your body pulled me out of the spring, both neutralizing the spring for anyone else that falls in, but apparently ripping a hole in the space-time continuum. I don't know exactly where you'll end up, but it should be a different dimension."

The black outlines that made up the valley started dripping down, like ink on a tilted canvas. The land slowly faded as well, as the springs disappeared in a slide of ink-like blackness.

"I'm sure you don't know this, but three personalities aren't going to work. One of us would always be fighting for dominance, and eventually, with a split mind, we'd go insane, likely killing anything near us. There is… one option. Merging."

Ranma had steadily grown paler and paler as she went on. By the time she finished, he was as white as a fresh bed-sheet. He started panicking even more as he realized that the pools were destroyed already, and that the collapsing landscape was diverging on the hill-top from all sides.

"Do it!" he exclaimed.

The fading had already reached the base of the platforms. Suddenly, Daine, Ranma, and Ranma-chan all started glowing in a soft, golden light. Ranma tried to say something but found that his vocal cords were frozen. He couldn't see who spoke, and the voice could have been either, but someone was talking.

"I have no idea how this will affect us, or our body, but it's too late for that now."

Ranma tried calling out to the female him. "Hey, I never got your name!" He called over the loud noises and bright light. He heard her yell back. "It's Lina Inverse!" '_The same Lina Inverse who wrote my book?'_ thought Ranma

"Time is up! **BODY MIND FUSION!"** Suddenly, the collapsing landscape fell out from underneath him and he fell into a white abyss, not exactly sure when he stopped falling and blacked out.

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"Ugh, did someone get the license plate of that steamroller?" Ranma asked, groggily sitting up. The first thing that Ranma noticed was the pitch of that phrase. It was definitely female. Ranma looked down, only to confirm _her_ thoughts. "Oh Kami-sama! I'm a girl. That wasn't a dream… why don't I care more?" She said out loud to nobody in particular.

The second thing she noticed was that she was in a fairly wooded area. Most of the trees reached at least forty feet upwards into the sky, which was a cloudless blue. She heard a small stream of water just a few feet away. Crawling over to it, she got her first glimpse of her new body.

She looked a lot like a cross between Lina and Daine was. She was about five-seven, and still had flaming red hair, but it had streaks of smoky-brown, and, for some reason, white, in it. She figured it was because of the stress of the fusion, but she wasn't sure. It had fallen out of its pig-tail and now fell in waves down her back, stopping right above the small of her back.

Her eyes had changed, from a blue to a crimson-brown, like Lina's were. Her face was the same as Lina's was, and her figure was similar as well. She was definitely less strong as her male self was, but she figured that she was definitely faster than before. She wasn't bulky, as her muscles were closers to steel cables under her skin. Her breasts were about what you'd get if you combined the size of Daine's and Lina's, so they were closer to a large B-cup or small C, but they didn't look out of place on the rest of her body.

Her clothes hadn't changed at all, but now, she was literally swimming in them. They had fit fairly loose on his old five-ten frame, but now, they were almost falling off.

Suddenly, a rush of knowledge hit her, making her dizzy enough to lose her lunch into the stream. It was memories of two different lives. The first one was Lina's life, and her adventures with Gourry, Amelia, Zelgadis, and the people like Naga, Xellos, and Filia. She remembered slaying one of Ruby-Eyed Five Demon Lords and Hunting for the Clair Bible. She had to shut out the rest of the memories and the more specific ones to abide her headache.

The other one was just as complex. She concluded that it was Daine's life. She couldn't be bothered to check out more than the highlights, but it was enough to give her a general idea.

She grew up with her mother, Sarra, and her grandfather, for 12 years in Snowsdale, where she was disliked for not knowing her father. In January of… 449 HE, her mother and grandfather were killed by bandits. Furious, Daine forgot her humanity and began to run with a wolf pack in Snowsdale, set on destroying the bandits. After she had avenged her mother's death, she remembers who she was. She travels to Cria, Galla, where she met Onua, a horse trainer from Tortall. She signed on with Onua and helped drive some ponies to Tortall. In Tortall, she helped fight a battle against supposed Carthaki pirates, and learned that she had wild magic. She also took on the care of a baby dragon, Skysong, nicknamed Kitten. In the year 450 HE, Daine and her companion, Numair, had traveled north to Dunlath, Tortall, to help the wolf pack Daine was a part of in Snowsdale. They convicted Yolane of Dunlath of high treason. In autumn 451, Daine travels to Carthak as part of a peace delegation. She heals Emperor Ozorne's birds, and made friends with Kaddar, the Emperor's heir. Ozorne supposedly killed Numair, and Daine, furious, destroyed Ozorne's palace. After, she realized Numair was not dead. Ozorne was turned into a Stormwing. In the winter of that year, the barrier between the mortal and divine realms has collapsed, and Daine and Numair got into a fight with a beast known as a 'Skinner', and when she realized that she was about to be killed, she felt a spell on her back, and was falling towards Jusenkyo, where she drowned. It was a sad life, but Daine had no regrets, so she wouldn't either.

What had really interested her was if Daine's magic would affect her natural magic. She wasn't exactly sure if she had Daine's magic after the fusion, but she'd have to guess 'yes'. She was fascinated at how Daine's magic was tied to animals, and how she could sense them, talk to them, and turn part or even all of her body into an animal. She was about to try turning into a dragon, just to see if she could, when she 'remembered' Numair's words when Daine'd asked about that before.

'_You cannot turn into an Immortal. If you do, you won't be able to change back. Do not try it.'_

She quickly squelched her idea. She wasn't even sure she could focus on the transforming long enough to get it done.

One thing that she was slightly disturbed with was the fact that, while she had originally been male, she didn't mind being a girl at all. In fact, this seemed more… _right_ than being male ever had. She wasn't sure if it was that she'd always felt this way, just suppressed by her father's teaching, or if it was because two complete female mentalities had fused with a half male one, but it was something that disturbed her. She could tell she was a tomboy, but still definitely female. Sure, she wasn't planning on starting a garden wearing a pink dress or anything, (she had to laugh at herself when she remembered she got drafted the name 'Lina the Pink') and, though she hadn't figured out why, she still liked girls more than guys, one of her big desires right then was to go shopping for clothing.

Thinking about this had given her major headache. Exhausted, she rolled onto her back and just laid there, listening to the sounds of the forest.

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She must have nodded off, because when she opened her eyes again, her headache was gone, but the sky had turned red, like the sunset. Groaning, she rolled onto her stomach, pushed herself up to a standing base, took one step forward, hopefully towards civilization… and fell flat on her face with a loud 'oof'.

Her sense of balance was totally off. She supposed that she shouldn't have been too surprised. After all, she had gotten three inches shorter and her center of gravity had moved to a place slightly higher up. She grumbed as she stood up and tried, much more carefully this time, to walk forward. She stumbled into a tree, slamming into it hard. Sighing, she decided to try something a little different.

She sat up, ignoring the painful bouncing of her chest, and pointed a hand towards a nearby rock. "Fireball" she muttered under her breath, trying to use the fire spell in its weakest form, without the incantation. Instead of a small fire orb shooting out of her hand, an excruciating pain shot up her arm, making it feel as if it was burning. She bit it lip to keep from screaming, and only slightly winced as ruby-red blood filled her mouth from two puncture marks in her lip. After what seemed like an eternity, the pain died down, and Ranma spat her blood out onto the grass.

She looked back at her arm, only to gasp. It had felt like her arm was being burned because her arm WAS being burned. Crawling up and down her entire right arm was indecipherable runes, made out of burned flesh. They glowed slightly, a sign that the fire damage was still there, slightly.

It was a fairly simple pattern, as far as glyphs go. It started with a large rune on her palm, and five smaller trails of runes running to the tips of her fingers, looping over the tips of her fingers, and back to the center of the back of her hand, where another large, complex rune was. From there, seven paths, four from the palm and three from the other, equally separated, snaked their way down her arm, parallel to each other, until they reached her shoulder. There was a third rune there. The seven chains were connected by circles of runes that went around her arms like bracelets.

She sighed. "Damn, when she… I? Whatever, said that all the weird stuff has to happen to us… me? Lina wasn't kidding." She looked back at her still stinging arm. "I wonder what this will do." She rolled her eyes and tried walking again. And fell again.

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Her personality had done a lot of changing over the merge, taking some of the best from each of the three personalities to make one completely different. She had Lina's temper, but only milder, and her love for treasure, from Daine was the love of animals of all kinds and the desire to not eat any animals (that was offset by Lina's diet, which was almost always dried meats and fish), and she still had her own drive. There were other elements, but those were the most important.

It took her a full day of practicing just to regain her sense of balance. Like she suspected, she wasn't quite as strong, but she was much faster. She'd tried, just for a minute, to shift her eyes into that of a cat, like Daine had done several times. It worked, much to her delight.

After that, it was another week of training to get back into shape to where she could use her martial arts again. She hadn't dared to try using any of her magic, not wanting to risk something worse than a chain of runes on her arm. After she'd gotten comfortable in her body in terms of both general motion and her fighting, which she didn't do much of at the moment (the jerky movements made her breasts bounce in a painful way); she'd tried to use magic again.

She was surprised, but only slightly, to find that the runes acted as a focus for her magic spells, much like the Demon Blood Talismans she had bought of Xellos in her last life. She was even happier to find that they acted exactly like the Talismans, right down to the activation phrase.

The forest was another weird thing. She could barely sense any animal presences in the forest at all. She managed to detect some bugs that she'd never heard of, and some birds, but that was it. It slightly disturbed her.

After about a week and a half of magic training, she felt confident to head out and try to find civilization, or at least an animal she could talk to. She walked over to the center of the clearing and focused on her mana, before looking up.

"RAY WING!" She called out, creating a barrier of wind around her. Lifting up into the air, she dashed off on the direction that she detected most of the strange animals, hoping to find a city or town of some sort.

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About ten minutes into the flight, she realized something and promptly lost her concentration, falling out of the sky and ramming head-first into a tree. Spitting out some leaves, she yelled out "HEY, I INSULTED MYSELF!" (Lina's Gourry crack at him)

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Fortunately for her, civilization was only about an hour away by Ray Wing. She didn't want to answer any tricky questions, so she lowered her altitude and touched down in a clearing and then walked another half-mile to the city.

Breaking through the tree line, he looked down the top of the hill towards the small town. She said small town, because that's what it was. There were maybe ten or twelve buildings in the central town, but there were probably more hidden on the outskirts. One thing that DID catch her attention was a very large building on top of a hill.

The building itself was non-descript. It was just a white building with a red roof and a windmill nearby. No, what caught her attention were two things. One was simply the location of the building, on top of a large hill, overlooking the town, with about a hundred steps on the staircase leading to it.

The other thing was that she could sense several hundred different animal signatures, several of them repressed, but many more of them felt totally normal, if not strange still. Sighing, she reached into her bag and pulled out a couple semi-rare stones she transformed from quartz and the like. "Looks like I'm going clothes shopping. Maybe I'll find out where I am doing that."

She grinned. After all, all girls like shopping, and neither Daine nor Lina were exceptions to this rule.

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Three hours later, and two emeralds and a ruby shorter, Ranma had a new set of clothes. They were yellow and red, with a black cloak and some rock-hard shoulder guards. The cloak had been custom made, as well as the guards, by a small store that had some free time and a lot of spare fabric. She was especially thankful that they just wrote off the signs she wanted stitched into the fabric as just for decorations.

(The outfit was almost identical to Lina's, basically if you lose all the talismans or jewelry and you've basically got it.)

Sighing, she walked up to a nearby sign that she'd overlooked beforehand. It read:

WELCOME TO PALLET TOWN, LEADING POKEMON RESEARCH CENTER!

THOSE NEW HERE, SEE PROFESSOR OAK IN THE LARGE HOUSE ON THE HILL.

She sweatdropped. "Well, at least they're specific," she said, scratching her chin weakly. "What's a Pokemon?" She added as an afterthought.

"Ah well." She said, walking towards the first steps up to the Pokemon Lab.

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She supposed she should have been surprised to find that Professor Oak was a leading Pokemon Researcher and lived in such a backwater town, but she wasn't. After all, it kinda made sense, the less people, the more space for Pokemon.

She was lucky enough to find a brochure in the front room while she was waiting for Oak to return from where-ever he was. It contained the basics of what Pokemon were, how they acted, and what they were used for. She was a little disturbed to find that they were basically slaves to whoever caught them, but realized that if they were treated well, and like friends, then they were happy, so she wouldn't mind.

Engrossed with reading, she didn't notice a presence sneak up behind her until he reached down and tapped her shoulder. Surprised, she jumped out of the chair and into a defensive position that she'd designed for maximum movement combined with the ability to cast spells quickly.

The man, for that's who it was that had tapped her on the shoulder, was about five eleven with light brown hair and brown eyes. He looked at least fifty, maybe a little older than that. He had on brown pants under a white lab coat, which was buttoned up fairly high. He had a slightly wide-eyed expression, before calming himself down and chuckling.

"Oh! I'm sorry miss, I didn't mean to startle you." He said. His voice definitely gave his age away, but he looked to be in great shape for a fifty year old. Ranma dropped her guard and bowed slightly. "Sorry, I shouldn't have been so high-strung." Oak waved the apology away.

"Nonsense, it was my fault, not yours. Is there anything I can do for you?" he asked. Ranma nodded and pointed over her shoulder. In the window was a small sign that read 'Help Wanted'. Oak took a moment to recognize it. "Oh, you wanted to apply for the position of my assistant?" He asked. At Ranma's nod, he continued. "Well, what do you know about Pokemon?" He asked her.

Ranma looked sheepish. "Uh, well, that's the thing. I need this job because I don't know ANYTHING about Pokemon… well, I mean, I can sense them, and can probably understand what they say, but I haven't met any, so I don't really know." She said, more to herself than to Oak. Oak gave her a look.

"I'm sorry, but if you don't know anything about Pokemon, then…" He was cut off by a loud explosion. Ranma looked up in alarm. "What was that?" She said. Oak started running for his back door. "It came from the Pokemon Haven in the back yard! Come on!" Ranma was instantly up and running behind him. Running through the door, she came across one of the most bizarre sights she'd ever seen.

The Pokemon Haven was a large, open area surrounded by a dome of what appeared to be glass or Plexiglas, which contained any landscape you could think of. On the east side was a forest and meadow area with a lake and a river, and that gradually changed to a more mountainous region in the west. About a quarter of the meadow area was fenced off, keeping things out.

The rest of the area, though, was full of the animals she'd been able to sense ever since she'd broken the tree line outside the city. Not that she recognized any of them, though. There were different types of animals in every area of the enclave, but most, she realized, were focused above her.

She looked up to see a balloon in the shape of a giant cat head flying off, a bunch of what she assumed were these 'Pokemon' were in a large net hanging off the underside. In the balloon's basket were a man and a woman, and a cat-like creature.

The woman had long, red hair that seemed to defy gravity and hang about a foot away from her back and blue eyes. She was also wearing a white shirt with a red letter R on it that stopped above her navel and a white and black miniskirt.

The man had, of all colors, purple hair that stopped just below his ears, reminding Ranma of a certain Trickster Priest Mazoku. He was wearing an identical outfit, except that the shirt covered his navel and a pair of white pants. His shirt also had an R on it.

The yells of the Pokemon in the net, which were along the lines of 'HELP US!', by the way, gave Ranma a distinct impression of what was going on. She tried to turn to Oak, when they started talking, the woman and man trading off every other line.

"Prepare for trouble

And make it double.

To protect the world from devastation

To unite all peoples within our nation

To defend the evils of truth and love

To extend our reach to the stars above!

Jessie!

James!

Team Rocket, blasting off at the speed of light!

Surrender now or prepare to fight!"

Suddenly, a cat-like creature (she wasn't afraid, as she realized that the aura was different than a cat) popped out of the basket and said, in perfect English:

"Meoth! That's right!"

Ranma sweatdropped and turned to Oak, who wasn't doing much better in trying to hold one in. "You know these clowns?" she asked.

Oak couldn't hold it in any more and sweatdropped. "Unfortunately. They're members of Team Rocket, one of the largest rings of Pokemon thieves in Kanto." The balloon started to fly up out of the hole it had blasted in the dome. Oak pulled out a red and white ball, which Ranma recognized as a Pokeball.

"I need your help! Bulbasaur!" He threw it, and what looked like a green plant-animal with a green plant bulb on its back materialized in a flash of light. Ranma figured that Bulbasaur was the name of the funny little creature, and decided to memorize its magical 'signature', so that she could recognize it if she ever sensed one again.

"Bulbasaur, use Razor Leaf to cut down that bag!" The Bulbasaur turned around and said 'Bulba bulbasuar!', which Ranma translated as 'I'm on it!', before, to Ranma's shock, shooting several small, razor-sharp leaves out of its bulb towards the bag. Again, to her shock, they shot straight out at the bag holding the Pokemon, only to bounce off.

"What?!" The members of team Rocket just laughed. "Our experiences with the twerp helped us get some more advanced stuff. This net is reinforced alloy. Only the sharpest of the sharp could cut through it." said the cat-like thing, which had identified itself as a Meoth in its embarrassing opening rhyme. Oak looked troubled.

"Oh, no! Bulbasaur is the only Pokemon I have that's battle ready at the moment. All the others are too tired or in other areas of the lab!" Suddenly, he heard Ranma's voice behind him. "Would those Pokemon be able to handle a fall from that high up?" she asked. Oak didn't even turn to look at her.

"In theory, they should if the net was to open before they hit the ground. Even the members of Team Rocket should be able to survive a fall from that height. Why?" Ranma didn't answer, instead she started speaking in a more mystical voice.

"_East winds that blow, have you as their source, into my hands, GATHER YOUR FORCE!" _He turned back, saying, "I don't think praying is going to-" only to have his voice cut off as he saw Ranma.

She had one arm extended straight out, her first two fingers and thumb acting like they're grabbing something invisible in thin air, her right arm was bent so that her right hand was just below her right eye, in the same position as her left, like she was holding a bow and arrow. In between her hands was an arrow, made of pure fire.

"_FLARE ARROW!"_ she yelled, opening her right hand. The fire arrow flew straight out of her hands like launched like a real bow and arrow. It hit the joint where the net was connected to the balloon, burning it away. The net fell out of the sky, opening midfall, allowing the Pokemon to all land upright on the ground under the balloon. Team Rocket looked stunned.

"What was that? An arrow?" said Jessie.

They heard Ranma call up to them. "I'M NOT DONE YET!" They looked down to see Ranma grabbing her right wrist with her left hand, her right palm face up. She spoke in the same mystical voice as before.

"_Source of the East Wind, at my command, gather lightning into my hand!" _She spun her hand around to have her thumb pointing up, her first two fingers extended, with the other two tucked into her hand. Yellow lightning was crackling around her hand, stopping at her wrist, where her left hand was.

"James?"

"Yes, Meoth?"

"This is going to end badly, isn't it." Meoth said in a voice much calmer than he felt.

"I think so." Said James.

"_DIGU VOLT!" _A bolt of yellow lightning shot out of her two fingers and struck the cat balloon right in between the eyes, tearing a large hole in the balloon. As the air rushed out, it started flying erratically. Ranma brought her hands in front of her breasts and started her signature spell.

"_Oh, source of all power, light which burns beyond crimson, let thy power gather in my hand!" _ A large orb of red light formed in between her hands. Pulling her right arm back, she threw the light like a baseball, which collided with the balloon in a magnificent explosion. She though she heard someone yell 'Team Rocket's blasting off again!', but she wasn't sure.

"_Fire Ball"_ she muttered, looking very pleased with herself. She turned back to see a wide-mouthed Professor Oak, the Bulbasaur having been returned to its ball a while ago. She scratched the back of her head. "I guess I have some explaining to do, huh?" Oak just nodded dumbly.

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Oak took Ranma's… altered… story very well. She'd changed it to make it seem like she was female her whole life instead of just after he fell into the portal.

"Well, that's an interesting story… how about I make you a deal?" He asked. At Ranma's raised eyebrow, he continued. "If I agree to hire you, I'll teach you whatever I know about Pokemon, but you have to let me run some basic tests on your abilities. They may be key to understanding Pokemon better. Before you even ask, the basic tests are just things like having you use abilities on certain machines, nothing physical at all. So, do we have a deal?" He stuck his hand out.

Ranma barely had to think about it. For one, if she said no, she'd be in a strange dimension, without any money or knowledge of any of the strange creatures, history, landscape, or culture. If she said yes, she'd have a source of money, knowledge, and shelter, amongst other things in exchange for just a few tests on her magical abilities. It really was a no brainer. She reached out and shook his hand.

"I'm in." She said, grinning. Oak grinned as well.

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In retrospect, Ranma thought that signing on as Oaks Aid was a good idea, except for the outfit. She'd had to argue with Oak for over two hours before she convinced him that wearing the white labcoat and glasses with her hair in a ponytail was NOT a good idea.

She'd convinced him to let her work in whatever outfit she wanted, so she chose her yellow top and red pants, but left her cloak and headband in her room. It was easiest to move around in.

She genuinely enjoyed working for Oak, mainly because it was her job to both catalogue any information Oak took during his observations and organizing Pokeballs from trainers who send them in to keep under the six Pokemon cap. This was extremely easy as she could sense each one.

Understandably, Oak wasn't able to determine much from Pokemon attacks by studying Ranma's magic spells. She figured this was because, from what she could determine, Pokemon attacks were created by focusing the Pokémon's Ki or Chi in a specific way or to specific area, thus creating the attacks, while she used the other life source power, mana.

Oak taught her what he could about the Pokemon world, from the traditions of people, to the Pokemon League. After history was covered, he taught her how to take advanced observations on Pokemon and the proper way to record things.

She was only slightly surprised to learn that, while she could turn into an animal from her original dimension, she could also turn into Pokemon as well, but that was much harder. She had all of Daine's knowledge of animal structures, like bat wings and wolf legs, but he had nothing on Pokemon. She had to research a Pikachu for three days before she could even begin to try the transformation, and then it took another three to perfect it.

After about five months, Oak had taught her everything he could, so he called in two friends, Viridian's Nurse Jenny and Officer Joy. (Pallet town was so small that neither of them lived there) While Jenny taught Ranma all about the laws of the land and as much information that they had on the many different types of criminal syndicates like Team Rocket, Joy taught her how to heal Pokemon. While the training wasn't perfect and she didn't have enough time to learn everything, what she did learn would be enough to stabilize most Pokemon long enough to reach a center. This was important, as the 'Resurrection' Spell didn't work on them at all, and the 'Recovery' spell, which took slightly less time to cast, only worked slightly.

After about a week, Oak allowed her into the Pokemon Haven to interact with some of the Pokémon that were there. She quickly got to work, talking to any Pokémon that she met, both learning anything that she could about them and memorizing their magical 'signature' like she did with the Bulbasaur. After an embarrassing case of mistaken identity with two Growlithes, she figured out that all the Pokemon of one species had the same signature, and by extent, evolutions had similar signatures to their lower forms.

After a bad experience with a Nine-Tails a trainer had sent over, which DID have the same signature as a normal fox, Ranma was forced to come clean on the Kitsune-Neko-Ken. Oak didn't hold it against her, although he did want to find a way to get to her dimension and unleash a Snorlax to bodyslam her father. She was banned from going anywhere near Nine-Tails and Vulpixes, as well as any other cat or fox Pokemon, though.

She'd been forced to defend the lab and nearby town of Pallet a couple times from different squads of Team Rocket members who'd tried to attack the lab to steal Pokemon. Most of the times, a simple Fireball was enough to send them flying, but she'd been forced to use a few Bomb Di Wind just for the dramatic flair.

Needless to say, none of the Pokemon could help but become friends with Ranma, but whether it was the magic or just her natural charisma and kindness was unclear. She didn't slack off on her martial arts either, but did prefer to use her magic more than the martial arts, something that she couldn't have done if she was still with her father. One spell she hadn't taken the chance of testing to see if it was unlocked was the Giga Slave, as she still remembered her little experience with the Bay of Death in her first life. (The Bay went on to change into the Gulf of Mexico in the future, if you were wondering. The tip of Florida and the tip of the Yucatán Peninsula used to be the edges of the bay, but had been covered, allowing water to fill the rest, creating the bay)

Oaks tests were the most basic of basics. She'd preformed Mono Volts and Digu Volts on electrostatic generators and several different electrodes, Flare Arrows, Ice Arrows, and the invisible Wind Brid through air current monitors to measure speeds, and had her focus magic through her runic-tattoos to see if he could map the magic system. He was very disappointed when he failed.

He was also disappointed when she refused to show him the Dragon Slave.

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Ranma had been working for Oak for about six months, and he'd asked her to run and get a package for him which had arrived in the nearby town of Viridian City. She was on her way back from the mart, Ray Winging at high speeds just over the top of the trees towards the Lab, when she sensed something.

It was a Pikachu, one of her favorite Pokemon (they were just SO cute!). She was about to just sail on by, when she realized something. (**AN- My favorite Pokemon isn't a Pikachu… it's actually a tie between Umbreon, Salamance, and Darkrai. Just so you know.)**

The signature was weak. Very weak. She could tell that it wasn't suppressed, but actually weak. She'd used the following grossly simplified analogy to explain what she meant to Oak at one point.

An aura was like a piece of paper with the name of the Pokemon on it. It was easily read and easily identical. If an aura was suppressed, like in a Pokeball, it was like laying a piece of stained glass over the paper. The information was still there and she could still read it, but it was harder to make out. A weakened aura was like if the paper was placed very far away from her. The information was still there and in one piece, but it was so small that it was incredibly difficult to read and was harder to spot. If an aura went out all together, the Pokemon was dead. Thankfully, it was nearly impossible to kill a Pokemon.

This aura was one of the weakest that she'd ever seen. In fact, the only one that was weaker was an emergency patient Pidgey that had been brought to them. It was nearly on deaths door and hadn't made it.

Immediately switching from a Ray Wing to a Levitation spell, she dropped down towards the clearing to her right, which was, as far as she could tell, the location of the injured Pikachu.

After looking for only a moment, she found it. Lying under a tree on the far side of a clearing was the bloodied and battered body of a Pikachu. Running over to it, she couldn't hold in a small gasp.

The Pikachu was a mess. It was bleeding all over the place from various cuts, many nonlethal but several were definitely lethal. What had really shocked her wasn't all the blood, or the broken arm and leg. It wasn't even the stab wounds all over its body. No, what had shocked her was that someone or something had taken something sharp, most likely a knife, and completely destroyed the Pikachu's eyes. A large majority of the blood that was on the ground had originated from the destroyed organs.

"SHIT!" Tossing down the package, violently, Ranma knelt down next to the Pikachu and turned it over. Suddenly, she realized that the Pikachu wasn't asleep.

/Pika chu pi? Pi chu pikachu/ (What's going on? Who are you?) it said weakly. Ranma shushed it.

"Calm down. I'm here to help."

/Pika! Pika chu pi pika!!/ (Please! Don't leave me here!)

The Pikachu tried to move, but it fell and started convulsing. "Damnit. _Sleeping!_" She exclaimed, and the Pikachu instantly went limp, falling into a deep sleep. Ranma laid it out flat and placed her hands on its chest.

"_Oh, blessed and humble hand of God, life and breath of Mother Earth, come before me and show your great compassion and deliver us" _Her hands started glowing white, which slowly spread to the Pikachu. "_RECOVERY!" _she all but shouted.

The white light covered the Pikachu, fading just a moment later. Most of the non-vital wounds were gone, but none of the stabs or the eyes looked any better. Reaching into a small bag that she always carried around, she pulled out some gauze and bandages. After wrapping the eyes and hand, and padding the more vital wounds, she delicately lifted the Pikachu up and cast RayWing, zooming back to Viridian City at top speed.

She made it in about fifty seconds. Skidding to a halt, barely avoiding slamming face first into the wall of the Pokemon Center, she slammed through the doors, knocking some people out of her way and onto the floor.

"NURSE JOY!" She yelled, hopping the counter and barging into the back room. Nurse Joy, to her credit, was immediately over to her, wondering what was going on. She took one look at the Pikachu and let out a line that Ranma would have heard several times if it wasn't for the interdimensional transport thing. "Oh, My!" That was quickly followed with the less popular but still important "get it into the OR."

Ranma rushed and put it on a nearby gurney, Nurse Joy right beside her. "I used Recovery to get rid of what damage I could, but it started convulsing, so I had to use sleep on it." She said, before grabbing the gurney and rolling it towards the OR in the back. Bursting through the doors, she entered the thankfully empty room, Nurse Joy on her heels, having had to pause to grab some things.

The door slammed shut, and neither of them were seen for the rest of the day.

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"Ranma, are you alright. I expected you back several hours ago!" Oak said over the video-phone. Ranma scratched her head and looked down. This was the first job she'd ever not made it back to on time. Because of Ray Wing, she was Oak's fastest runner. '_Well, there goes my perfect record'_ she though wryly.

"Well, I was coming back on schedule, but before I made it back to Pallet, I felt a Pikachu with a really faint aura." Her voice was jagged and uneven. "I stopped to make sure it was ok, only to find that…" She looked up and Oak noticed she had tears running down her face. He found out the hard was that the only thing that could make her cry was if a Pokemon or a friend was hurt, especially for no reason. It was one weakness she'd probably always have.

"…someone had stabbed it and slashed its eyes out!" Oak brought a hand to his mouth. "Oh! Is it ok?" Ranma started screaming at him.

"NO IT'S NOT OK! IT'S BEEN BLINDED! WE BARELY MANAGED TO HEAL THE STAB WOUNDS. THERE WASN'T ANYTHING WE COULD DO FOR THE EYES!" She fell back in a heap. She didn't know why, but she was already attached to the little rodent. She looked back at him, thankful that the center was empty so nobody saw her outburst.

Oak, who had pulled the phone away from his ear during Ranma's rant, slowly and delicately put it back. He'd only seen her like this one other time, and it wasn't a pretty sight. That trainer (who'd been abusing his Pokemon) was lucky to escape after only three mono volts, a fireball, and a hard kick where no man wants to be kicked.

"Did it say anything to you?" Normally, this would be a weird question, but Ranma was anything but normal. Ranma choked back another sob. "It said… it said 'Don't leave me.'" Oak looked at her. "Well, my package can wait. Take your time, and call me as soon as it's awake." Oak signed off after Ranma said goodbye.

Nurse Joy walked up behind her. She, as well as her sisters, who had heard of Ranma through her, had taken a liking to her for her love and dedication to Pokemon, and her skill in healing was second… thirtieth?... only to them.

She laid a hand on her shoulder. "Ranma, would you like to stay here tonight?" She asked. Ranma nodded. She turned around and started to get a bed ready. Ranma pulled her knees up to her chin and hugged them, silently praying for the Pikachu.

Chapter End.

Ok, I hope you like what I did… I hope I did it well enough. If your confused, you might not have seen the changes I made to the first chapter, so look at that. Ok, C ya


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